Railtrack's '£3,000 staff junket'

Railtrack was at the centre of a new financial row today after spending £3,000 on a "junket" for engineers.

The company, reliant on millions of pounds of taxpayers' money since going into administration last year, hired a vintage steam train for a track inspection.

A party 20 managers and engineers chugged from from Birmingham to Didcot in Oxfordshire in a fully-restored 1930 Great Western locomotive with two Pullman-style coaches.

The coaches, boasting dining facilicties for 14, in which lunch was served, and a bar, are so plush they have been used for Royal Train duty on trips to Henley Regatta and Newbury races. A senior rail industry source today said: "It beggars belief Railtrack would do this - you can only imagine what taxpayers would make of it."

A Railtrack spokeswoman defended the trip to inspect track between Banbury and Oxford due to carry highspeed tilting trains. She said: "The layout of these coaches is such that we can get everyone into one for the best view of the track."

She said the trip would normally cost £4,000, but charter firm Vintage Trains offered a discount.